Joshua Bell Quotes

I know that John Adams has had a very hard time directing French ensembles.

A Beethoven symphony should be rehearsed like chamber music, only for a lot more people.

I'm having a blast being the music director at the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. It certainly is challenging for me, but I love challenges.

I find little in the works of Beethoven, Berlioz, Wagner and others when they are led by a conductor who functions like a windmill.

I approach everything as chamber music. Even with Beethoven symphonies, I lead from the violin and basically encourage the orchestra to think of it as a giant string quartet.

The orchestral or symphonic music never interested me.

In symphonic music, when you are conducting, you do the same thing. You are feeling the whole orchestra, thinking ahead so you can prepare for a change.

When I do the music, I make the musicians listen to what's happening in the film. That way they treat the dialogue as if it was a singer.

Even in classical music, the cello doesn't get a lot of respect because the piano and the violin get it all.

I love conducting. What I'm tired of is music administration. I don't want that. I just want to make music.

He was making all kinds of sounds apparently with his mouth, and shaking his head and I thought, gosh, is he trying to stop the orchestra? Is it all wrong? It was just unbelievable.

My whole life, I've been watching conductors. I was 7 the first time I played with a conductor. Seeing the ones that do it well, it's an amazing thing.

In contrast, traditional classical music starts from an abstract musical schema. This is then notated and only expressed in concrete sound as a last stage, when it is performed.

Let me say that I've never thought to conduct because the conductor has to think to the music before the orchestra. And the orchestra comes later. For me, it's terrible.

I can take any series of numbers and turn it into music, from Bach to bebop, Herbie Hancock to hip-hop.

I kind of alternate between conducting and playing and kind of juggling those things, but I don't use a baton.

I like classical music of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and I adore Bach above all.

I love doing concert music.

I was different from most young conductors today.

When you hear Bach or Mozart, you hear perfection. Remember that Bach, Mozart and Beethoven were great improvisers. I can hear that in their music.

In truth, I became a conductor because deep down I wanted to conduct Brahms's four symphonies and Richard Strauss's tone poems.

My music wouldn't sound the way it does if I hadn't had the experience of conducting.

I love classical music and often listen to symphonies or opera in the morning.

Technique is communication: the two words are synonymous in conductors.

Conductors' careers are made for the most part with 'Romantic' music. 'Classic' music eliminates the conductor; we do not remember him in it.